Wellcell Holdings (02477.HK) Makes Strategic Move into Crypto Payments - Fopay Poised to Become Hong Kong's Web3 Trailblazer
Regulatory Tailwinds Driving Adoption
2024 witnessed the implementation of key stablecoin regulatory frameworks worldwide – the EU's MiCA establishing issuance standards, the U.S. Stablecoin Act strengthening compliance requirements, and Hong Kong's Stablecoin Ordinance passed in May marking a watershed moment for Asia's market. Against this backdrop, Wellcell's timely launch of Fopay demonstrates strategic acumen and execution capability. As one of the few Hong Kong-listed companies positioned to benefit from the trillion-dollar global stablecoin opportunity, Wellcell's strategic upgrade could emerge as a benchmark case under Hong Kong's new virtual asset policies.
JPMorgan research projects the compliant stablecoin payment market to exceed $5 trillion by 2027, growing at a 68% CAGR
HKMA forecasts compliant stablecoin payments will account for over 25% of local cross-border settlements by 2025
Regulation-Friendly Architecture
Fopay's "compliant prepaid card" model partners with licensed institutions for stablecoin custody while integrating with the VISA network. This innovative approach mitigates asset custody risks while achieving interoperability with traditional finance – giving it significant compliance cost advantages over international competitors in Hong Kong.
Solving Cross-Border Payment Pain Points
Fopay's value proposition directly addresses three critical challenges in traditional cross-border payments:
Fee Disruption: Zero-fee peer-to-peer transfers and remittances, dramatically reducing costs compared to SWIFT
Speed Advantage: Crypto cross-border settlements in minutes versus 1-3 business days for traditional banks
Global Accessibility: Instant stablecoin-to-fiat conversion through VISA's 60-million merchant network
Merchant Solutions: Crypto payment APIs enabling stablecoin settlements for e-commerce and trading companies to enhance capital efficiency
Technical Edge
Notably, Fopay supports leading high-performance blockchains including Solana, Arbitrum, Ethereum, and BSC, delivering transaction throughput (TPS) orders of magnitude higher than traditional banking systems. This technical superiority creates a moat in high-frequency, low-value payment scenarios like cross-border e-commerce and game top-ups.
Shareholder Synergy: Hangfeng International's Strategic Value
As Wellcell's largest single shareholder, Hangfeng International is demonstrating remarkable Web3 ecosystem synergies through its "payments + asset management" dual-engine strategy:
Fopay's user growth and capital accumulation will drive sustainable AUM expansion for Hangfeng's planned U.S.-listed asset management subsidiary
Public filings indicate Hangfeng's asset management platform is preparing to launch regulated digital asset custody and management services, offering institutional-grade solutions to ecosystem partners
Strategic Investor Backing
Hangfeng International's shareholder base brings together strategic investors from fintech, cross-border trade, and industrial internet sectors. These quality industry partners will collectively develop practical payment application scenarios, creating lasting ecosystem value and business momentum.
Market Underappreciation
Institutional research suggests this ecosystem synergy remains undervalued by the market. Beyond being a payment instrument, Fopay is transforming into a "super-interface" bridging traditional finance and Web3 – potentially the Web3 infrastructure benchmark that Hong Kong's capital markets have been awaiting.
The strategic positioning of Fopay under Wellcell's ecosystem, backed by Hangfeng International's resources, presents a compelling case for being Hong Kong's first truly institutional-grade Web3 payment infrastructure play.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Globe and Mail
9 hours ago
- Globe and Mail
3 Crypto-Centric Stocks to Grab on the Ongoing Bitcoin Rally
The cryptocurrency rally has been continuing despite a mixed bag of economic data released over the past couple of weeks. The Federal Reserve is likely to keep interest rates unchanged, while uncertainty over the impact of President Donald Trump's tariffs is again raising concerns over the economy's future. Bitcoin (BTC), which hit an all-time high last week, has managed to hold its ground and has surpassed expectations of analysts. The cryptocurrency is on track to hit another new all-time high, and experts believe that it has the potential to surpass $150,000 this year. Given this situation, it would be ideal to invest in crypto-focused stocks. We have selected three stocks, namely Visa Inc. V, Robinhood Markets, Inc. HOOD and Interactive Brokers Group IBKR. Each of these stocks has strong growth potential for 2025 and has seen positive earnings estimate revisions in the last 90 days. Bitcoin Rally Continues Bitcoin hit an all-time high of $123,153.22 last week, before giving up some of its gains. The cryptocurrency has mostly been hovering around $119,000 since then. Concerns about potential new tariffs and a jump in June inflation caused by existing tariffs led to a slight dip in Bitcoin's value over the past few days. However, Trump said on Tuesday that trade talks are underway with several countries and more deals will be announced before the Aug. 1 deadline for his tariffs. This came as Trump announced that the United States reached a massive $550 billion trade deal with Japan, just two weeks after threatening with 25% tariffs. Trump also recently announced trade deals with the Philippines and Indonesia. Meanwhile, a surge in June retail sales suggests that the economy is still on solid ground, which gives the Fed ample reasons to keep interest rates unchanged in its upcoming meeting late this month. However, market participants are still hopeful that the Federal Reserve will implement two 25 basis point rate cuts this year, which is likely to boost Bitcoin further. 3 Crypto-Centric Stocks With Upside Visa Inc. Visa is taking a significant step toward modernizing cross-border money movement. In a move aimed at enhancing the efficiency of global transactions, V is expanding its stablecoin settlement capabilities to the high-performing Solana blockchain. This expansion of V includes collaboration with prominent merchant acquirers Worldpay and Nuvei, marking a pivotal development in the world of digital payments. Visa's expected earnings growth rate for the current year is 13.1%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year earnings has improved 0.6% over the last 90 days. V currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. Robinhood Markets Robinhood Markets, Inc. operates a financial services platform in the United States. Its platform allows users to invest in stocks, exchange-traded funds, options, gold and cryptocurrencies. HOOD buys and sells Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dogecoin and other cryptocurrencies using its Robinhood Crypto platform. Robinhood Markets' expected earnings growth rate for the current year is 20.2%.The Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year earnings has improved 18% over the last 60 days. Robinhood Markets currently has a Zacks Rank #1. Interactive Brokers Group, Inc. Interactive Brokers Group is a global automated electronic broker. IBKR executes, processes and trades in cryptocurrencies. IBKR's commodities futures trading desk also offers customers a chance to trade cryptocurrency futures. Interactive Brokers Group has an expected earnings growth rate of 9.7% for the current year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year earnings has improved 9% over the last 90 days. IBKR currently has a Zacks Rank #1. 5 Stocks Set to Double Each was handpicked by a Zacks expert as the #1 favorite stock to gain +100% or more in the coming year. While not all picks can be winners, previous recommendations have soared +112%, +171%, +209% and +232%. Most of the stocks in this report are flying under Wall Street radar, which provides a great opportunity to get in on the ground floor. Today, See These 5 Potential Home Runs >> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Visa Inc. (V): Free Stock Analysis Report Interactive Brokers Group, Inc. (IBKR): Free Stock Analysis Report Robinhood Markets, Inc. (HOOD): Free Stock Analysis Report
Globe and Mail
12 hours ago
- Globe and Mail
The Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights Visa and Affirm Holdings
For Immediate Release Chicago, IL – July 23, 2025 – announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: Visa Inc. V and Affirm Holdings, Inc. AFRM. Here are highlights from Tuesday's Analyst Blog: Visa vs. Affirm: Old School & FinTech - Who Wins the Payment War? Visa Inc. and Affirm Holdings, Inc. both are now operating at the forefront of the payments landscape, one as a decades-old card network with global scale, the other as a fast-growing fintech innovator in buy now, pay later (BNPL). Visa processes trillions in consumer and commercial payments each year, earning reliable fee-based revenues. Affirm, by contrast, has carved out a niche financing model that embeds point-of-sale loans directly into e-commerce checkouts. With growing competition from Big Tech and evolving consumer preferences, investors must decide whether Visa's entrenched network or Affirm's disruptive momentum offers better upside. Let's dive deep and closely compare their fundamentals to determine which stock is the stronger investment opportunity today. The Case for Visa Visa remains a dominant force in global payments, operating one of the most extensive and secure card payment networks in the reported second quarter fiscal 2025 net revenue of $9.6 billion, up 9.3% year-over-year on an 8% gain in payments volume and strong cross-border growth. Its durable competitive moat lies in its sprawling global network, which captures more than half of purchase volume in the United States and billions of digital transactions. Visa Inc. price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | Visa Inc. Quote Its entrenched global reach, strong brand trust and deep integration with financial institutions continue to make it a backbone of the traditional payments bolstered shareholder returns with $5.6 billion in buybacks in the last reported quarter and a fresh $30 billion repurchase authorization, underscoring cash-flow strength. Beyond core card transactions, Visa is pushing into digital payments through Visa Direct, tapping into peer-to-peer and business payouts. It is also investing in real-time payments infrastructure and API-based solutions to remain relevant in a rapidly digitizing financial landscape. However, Visa's growth is naturally tied to the pace of consumer spending and cross-border transactions, both of which are increasingly vulnerable to economic cycles and inflation pressures. Additionally, Visa's business model is primarily fee-based and intermediated, dependent on banks, merchants and processors. This layered structure contrasts with the emerging direct-to-consumer models that fintech disruptors are leveraging to sidestep traditional rails. As the payments landscape shifts toward embedded finance and alternative credit models, Visa's legacy advantage may be less compelling for tech-savvy Gen Z and millennial consumers seeking speed, flexibility and something fresh. The Case for Affirm Affirm represents the modern alternative to traditional credit cards, with its BNPL model reshaping how consumers finance purchases. In fiscal third-quarter 2025, Affirm's revenues improved 36% year over year to $783.1 million, driven by higher gross merchandise volume (GMV) and expanded merchant relationships. Its active consumer count rose to 21.9 million, and transactions per active user grew by 21.7%, showing rising engagement and repeat usage. Affirm Holdings, Inc. price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | Affirm Holdings, Inc. Quote What makes Affirm structurally compelling is its ability to operate outside the traditional credit-card networks. Its partnerships with Shopify, Amazon, Costco and Apple allow it to plug directly into consumer spending. Affirm's AI-powered underwriting tools and real-time risk assessment give it the agility to approve users more accurately and scale profitably. Unlike Visa, which largely benefits from payment routing, Affirm profits from originating and managing consumer credit directly. The company's diversified funding model, including 24 securitizations totaling $12.25 billion and relationships with 150+ capital partners, underscores its growing operational maturity. And while Affirm is not yet consistently profitable for a long period, its investments in automation, gen AI, and merchant analytics tools are positioning it for long-term operating leverage. With younger demographics favoring transparent instalment payments, Affirm is well-aligned with consumer trends. Internationally, Affirm is scaling through a strategic partnership with Shopify to enter Western Europe, following its U.K. launch. With more than 358,000 merchant partners, this global push opens up significant new revenue streams. Affirm is also broadening its ecosystem beyond core BNPL, investing in debit card offerings and B2B tools to further diversify business. AFRM's long-term debt-to-capital of 71.8% is significantly higher than Visa's 30.7%, but that is not entirely unexpected for the fintech, still scaling operations. Affirm's high leverage reflects its aggressive growth strategy and non-bank structure, which is normal for its business model, but also means higher interest expense risk and greater exposure to credit market tightening. How Do Zacks Estimates Compare for V & AFRM? The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Affirm's bottom line is comparably favorable at this stage. The consensus estimate for V's fiscal 2025 earnings indicates a 13.1% increase from a year ago, while the same for revenues suggests 10.3% growth. On the other hand, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for Affirm's fiscal 2025 EPS indicates 101.8% year-over-year improvement, and the same for revenues signals a 37.1% rise. Valuation: V vs. AFRM On a price-to-sales basis, Visa sits at 15.04X forward revenues, significantly above the industry average of 6.30X. By contrast, Affirm's price-to-sales multiple is at 5.41X, in line with its high growth fintech peers. Affirm's cheaper P/S multiple leaves room for significant growth as business expansion accelerates. Price Performance Comparison Visa has returned 32.5% in the past year, buoyed by resilient spending trends and market optimism. Affirm, meanwhile, has delivered a massive 127.5% return, driven by its outsized revenue growth and positive guidance surprises. Both have outperformed the industry and the S&P 500 Index during this time. Conclusion While Visa with a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy), continues to dominate global payments with scale, profitability and unmatched trust, its model is comparatively mature and tethered to the pace of economic activity. Affirm, in contrast, is riding structural tailwinds, consumer credit disruption, embedded finance and a flexible payment demanding user base. Affirm's significant revenue growth, expanding merchant base and growing user engagement point to accelerating momentum. Its nimble, vertically integrated platform gives it more control over the customer experience, and its recent international push and AI investments signal it is just getting started. Yes, Affirm carries higher leverage and is still scaling, but its valuation reflects that upside potential. Given its faster growth trajectory, more favorable Zacks estimates and outperformance in the stock market, Affirm currently offers more compelling upside for investors seeking the next phase of fintech and payments evolution. AFRM currently sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank stocks here. Why Haven't You Looked at Zacks' Top Stocks? Since 2000, our top stock-picking strategies have blown away the S&P's +7.7% average gain per year. Amazingly, they soared with average gains of +48.4%, +50.2% and +56.7% per year. Today you can access their live picks without cost or obligation. See Stocks Free >> Zacks Investment Research 800-767-3771 ext. 9339 support@ Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Inherent in any investment is the potential for loss. This material is being provided for informational purposes only and nothing herein constitutes investment, legal, accounting or tax advice, or a recommendation to buy, sell or hold a security. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. It should not be assumed that any investments in securities, companies, sectors or markets identified and described were or will be profitable. All information is current as of the date of herein and is subject to change without notice. Any views or opinions expressed may not reflect those of the firm as a whole. Zacks Investment Research does not engage in investment banking, market making or asset management activities of any securities. These returns are from hypothetical portfolios consisting of stocks with Zacks Rank = 1 that were rebalanced monthly with zero transaction costs. These are not the returns of actual portfolios of stocks. The S&P 500 is an unmanaged index. Visit for information about the performance numbers displayed in this press release. 5 Stocks Set to Double Each was handpicked by a Zacks expert as the #1 favorite stock to gain +100% or more in the coming year. While not all picks can be winners, previous recommendations have soared +112%, +171%, +209% and +232%. Most of the stocks in this report are flying under Wall Street radar, which provides a great opportunity to get in on the ground floor. Today, See These 5 Potential Home Runs >> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Visa Inc. (V): Free Stock Analysis Report Affirm Holdings, Inc. (AFRM): Free Stock Analysis Report
Globe and Mail
a day ago
- Globe and Mail
3 Brilliant Dividend Stocks to Buy Now and Hold for the Long Term
Key Points Federal Realty is a reliable Dividend King that's attractively priced. Visa is expensive, but has an attractive growth story to offer. Bank of Nova Scotia is a Canadian banking giant with a solid turnaround plan. 10 stocks we like better than Visa › Dividend stocks come in all shapes and sizes, so there's no one-size-fits-all approach that works for everyone. That's actually good news, since every investor is unique. If you are looking for dividend stocks to buy, you'll want to examine Federal Realty (NYSE: FRT), Visa (NYSE: V), and Bank of Nova Scotia (NYSE: BNS). Here's why these three options could be brilliant stocks to buy and hold for the long term (for the right investor). 1. Federal Realty is boring and reliable Federal Realty is a retail-focused real estate investment trust (REIT). It owns strip malls and mixed-use developments that are centered around retail assets. It isn't the biggest retail REIT, owning only around 100 properties. However, those properties are large and very well located, with higher average populations and income than the REIT's closest peers. Where to invest $1,000 right now? Our analyst team just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks to buy right now. Continue » One of the key skills that Federal Realty possesses is on the development and redevelopment front. In fact, it is a fairly active portfolio manager, buying assets that need some love, fixing them up to increase their value and rent-generating capacity, and then selling if a good price can be had. The process is then repeated. This model has worked very well over time, noting that Federal Realty is the only REIT to have achieved Dividend King status. Now add in an attractive 4.6% dividend yield, which is well above the 1.3% yield of the S&P 500 index (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC) and the 4.1% yield of the average REIT. If you are looking for a large and reliable income stream, Federal Realty should be on your radar today. 2. Visa is a dividend growth machine Not every dividend investor is looking for a big yield; some are looking for dividend growth. That's where Visa excels, noting that its annualized dividend growth rate over the past decade was a shockingly impressive 17%. More recent growth has been a bit slower, but the dividend growth rates over the one-, three-, and five-year periods are all over 10%. These are the kind of stats that dividend growth investors should love. Visa is a payment processor. It collects small fees for facilitating billions of transactions with cards that carry its logo. No single fee is very large, but over the vast number of transactions it handles, the figures add up. And, despite its already impressive scale, the business is still growing. In the second quarter of 2025, Visa processed 9% more transactions than it did a year ago, leading to a 9% jump in revenues and a 10% increase in adjusted earnings. The one problem with Visa stock is that investors are well aware of how attractive the business is today, and the stock's price-to-sales and price-to-earnings ratios are above their five-year averages. That said, neither of these metrics is shockingly above its average, so more aggressive investors focused on dividend growth (the dividend yield is a tiny 0.7% or so) still might want to dive in here, noting that the world continues to move toward digital and card payments. 3. Bank of Nova Scotia is a low-risk and high-yield turnaround Bank of Nova Scotia, which normally just gets shortened to Scotiabank, is one of the largest banks in Canada. Canada has strict banking regulations that have, effectively, created protected industry positions for the country's largest banks. And that regulation has generally left the largest banks, like Scotiabank, with a conservative ethos. That's the backdrop for a stock that is offering up an attractively high 5.7% yield. The dividend, meanwhile, has been paid every year since 1833. This is a reliable dividend stock, but it isn't exactly running on all cylinders today. Scotiabank attempted to differentiate itself by focusing on Central and South America as it looked to expand beyond its Canadian borders. That didn't work out as well as hoped, and it is now revamping its approach, exiting weaker markets, emphasizing stronger markets, and including the U.S. in the mix to a greater degree. This effort is ongoing, making Scotiabank a turnaround story, but it seems to be achieving decent success. Notably, dividend growth was put on pause in 2024, but has resumed again in 2025. Dividend options for all sorts of investors The dividend stocks on this list probably won't all be attractive to the same investor. Investors looking for a boring and reliable high yield will likely appreciate Federal Realty. Dividend growth investors should focus on Visa. And turnaround lovers will like Bank of Nova Scotia. Should you invest $1,000 in Visa right now? Before you buy stock in Visa, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Visa wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $665,092!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $1,050,477!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 1,055% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 180% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor. See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of July 21, 2025
